An RFID tag is a small radio transceiver that can be attached to a movable article to help keep track of its whereabouts and status. A small, light-weight inexpensive tag is desirable. To miniaturize the tag, the size of the circuitry is reduced by using an integrated circuit (IC) design. The simpler the circuit, the smaller the resulting IC becomes thereby reducing the cost.
Operational environment factors can disrupt the reliability of these weak communication links. Reflective and refractive properties of the environment introduce possible multipath errors, and outside RF sources introduce interference in the received signal.